The Possible Tidal Demise of Kepler’s First Planetary System

The Possible Tidal Demise of Kepler’s First Planetary System
Shreyas Vissapragada1,7
, Ashley Chontos2,8
, Michael Greklek-McKeon3
, Heather A. Knutson3
, Fei Dai3,9
,
Jorge Pérez González4
, Sam Grunblatt5
, Daniel Huber6
, and Nicholas Saunders6,10
1
Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA; shreyas.vissapragada@cfa.harvard.edu
2
Department of Astrophysical Sciences, Princeton University, 4 Ivy Lane, Princeton, NJ 08540, USA
3
Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences, California Institute of Technology, 1200 East California Blvd, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA
4
Department of Physics & Astronomy, University College London, Gower Street, WC1E 6BT London, UK
5
Department of Physics and Astronomy, Johns Hopkins University, 3400 N. Charles Street, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA
6
Institute for Astronomy, University of Hawai’i at Mānoa, 2680 Woodlawn Drive, Honolulu, HI 96822, USA
Received 2022 November 9; accepted 2022 November 20; published 2022 December 19
Abstract
We present evidence of tidally-driven inspiral in the Kepler-1658 (KOI-4) system, which consists of a giant planet
(1.1RJ, 5.9MJ) orbiting an evolved host star (2.9Re, 1.5Me). Using transit timing measurements from Kepler,
Palomar/WIRC, and TESS, we show that the orbital period of Kepler-1658b appears to be decreasing at a rate
 = -
+
P 131 22
20
ms yr−1
, corresponding to an infall timescale  »
P P 2.5 Myr. We consider other explanations for the
data including line-of-sight acceleration and orbital precession, but find them to be implausible. The observed
period derivative implies a tidal quality factor 
¢ = ´
-
+
Q 2.50 10
0.62
0.85 4
, in good agreement with theoretical
predictions for inertial wave dissipation in subgiant stars. Additionally, while it probably cannot explain the entire
inspiral rate, a small amount of planetary dissipation could naturally explain the deep optical eclipse observed for
the planet via enhanced thermal emission. As the first evolved system with detected inspiral, Kepler-1658 is a new
benchmark for understanding tidal physics at the end of the planetary life cycle.
Unified Astronomy Thesaurus concepts: Exoplanet astronomy (486); Exoplanet evolution (491); Exoplanet
dynamics (490); Exoplanet tides (497); Transits (1711); Timing variation methods (1703); Hot Jupiters (753)
1. Introduction
Close-in planets experience intense tidal interactions that can
lead to changes in the planetary rotation rate, energy budget,
and orbit (Hut 1980, 1981; Jackson et al. 2008; Levrard et al.
2009; Leconte et al. 2010; Ogilvie 2014). Indeed, the long-term
fates of hot Jupiters are thought to be dictated by tides. As tides
rob energy from a hot Jupiter’s orbit, it spirals in toward its host
star, eventually colliding after a few billion years of evolution
(Rasio et al. 1996; Pätzold et al. 2004; Levrard et al. 2009;
Matsumura et al. 2010; Schlaufman & Winn 2013; Hamer &
Schlaufman 2019). However, these effects are difficult to
observe on human timescales, which limits our ability to
constrain fundamental tidal parameters that are often uncertain
by many orders of magnitude. The only unambiguous example
of a tidally decaying orbit so far is that of WASP-12b, where
 »
P P 3 Myr (Maciejewski et al. 2016, 2018; Patra et al.
2017; Baluev et al. 2019; Yee et al. 2020; Turner et al. 2021;
Wong et al. 2022). There are a number of other planets that
appear to have decaying orbits (recently cataloged by Ivshina &
Winn 2022); these are worthy of careful scrutiny, but ruling out
other astrophysical effects that operate on similar timescales
can be challenging (Bouma et al. 2020; Yee et al. 2020;
Maciejewski et al. 2021).
The prospects for observing tidal inspiral may be more
favorable for planets orbiting evolved stars. Tides depend
sensitively on the inverse scaled semimajor axis Rå/a, so close-
in planets around larger stars are natural targets for observing
tides in action. Additionally, evolved stars are probably more
dissipative than their main-sequence counterparts (Villaver &
Livio 2009; Schlaufman & Winn 2013; Weinberg et al. 2017;
Barker 2020), so inspiral should be more rapid for their planets
to the extent that orbital energy is dissipated in the star. We
were therefore motivated to monitor transiting planets on close-
in orbits (P < 5 days) around subgiant stars.
Kepler-1658b (KOI-4.01) is one such system. This was the
first planet candidate revealed by the Kepler mission, as KOI-
1.01, KOI-2.01, and KOI-3.01 were known prior to launch
(Borucki et al. 2011). Though the planet was misclassified as a
false positive for nearly a decade, Chontos et al. (2019) recently
characterized the host star with asteroseismology (Må =
1.45Me; Rå = 2.89 Re) and confirmed the planet with radial
velocity (RV) observations (Mp = 5.88 MJ; Rp = 1.07 RJ).
These authors searched the Kepler data for hints of a decaying
orbital period, but did not find any on the 4 yr timescale of the
mission. In this work, we present follow-up observations of
Kepler-1658b with Palomar/WIRC (Wilson et al. 2003) and
TESS (Ricker et al. 2015). By extending the observational
baseline for this system to 13 yr, we were able to search for
long-term changes in the orbital architecture that were not
previously observable.
2. Observations
2.1. Kepler
The Kepler spacecraft observed Kepler-1658 for 12 quarters
at 30 minute cadence and three quarters at 1 minute cadence.
The Astrophysical Journal Letters, 941:L31 (8pp), 2022 December 20 https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/aca47e
© 2022. The Author(s). Published by the American Astronomical Society.
7
51 Pegasi b Fellow.
8
Henry Norris Russell Fellow.
9
NASA Hubble Fellow.
10
NSF Graduate Research Fellow.
Original content from this work may be used under the terms
of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence. Any further
distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the title
of the work, journal citation and DOI.
1

We downloaded the Kepler light curve using lightkurve
(Lightkurve Collaboration et al. 2018) and modeled this data
set using exoplanet (Foreman-Mackey et al. 2021). We fit the
light curve quarter by quarter to obtain midquarter transit
timings (defined to be the first transit after the midpoint of the
quarter). Except for the midquarter time and the limb darkening
coefficients, we used the posteriors from the fit in Chontos et al.
(2019) as priors for our analysis to inform the model for each
quarter of the average transit shape. We simultaneously fit the
rotational variability of the star using a Gaussian process (GP),
defining a SHOTerm in celerite2 (Foreman-Mackey et al.
2017; Foreman-Mackey 2018) with a free amplitude scale σ, a
fixed timescale of 5.66 days (the known rotation period of the
star), and a fixed quality factor of 1.
We ran four chains for all of the fits in this paper. Each chain
was tuned for 2000 steps before 1000 posterior draws were
taken. For each fit, we verified that the Gelman–Rubin (Gelman
& Rubin 1992) statistic was 
R̂ 1.01 for all sampled
parameters. The transit times are given in Table 1, and the
light curves are plotted in Figure 1.
2.2. Palomar/WIRC
We observed transits of Kepler-1658b with Palomar/WIRC
on UT 2020 September 5 and UT 2022 July 26. We collected
data in the J band using a beam-shaping diffuser (Stefansson
et al. 2017; Vissapragada et al. 2020; Greklek-McKeon et al.
2022). On the first night, we acquired 60 s exposures from
04:28 to 09:51 UT (airmass 1.0–2.2), and on the second night,
we acquired 40 s exposures from 05:04 to 11:37 UT (airmass
1.1–1.7). Images from both nights were dark-corrected, flat-
fielded, and background-subtracted per the methods in
Vissapragada et al. (2020) and Greklek-McKeon et al.
(2022). We then performed aperture photometry on Kepler-
1658 along with 10 comparison stars on the first night and nine
on the second night. We used uncontaminated annuli with
25 pixel inner radii and 50 pixel outer radii for local back-
ground subtraction. We tested aperture sizes from 5 to 25 pixels
on both nights and chose the apertures that minimized the
scatter in the final light curves, which was 18 pixels (4 5) for
the first night and 12 pixels (3 0) for the second night.
We fit the Palomar/WIRC light curves using exoplanet,
again using the results from Chontos et al. (2019) as priors for
the fit for all parameters except the midtransit times and limb
darkening coefficients. We modeled the systematics as a linear
combination of comparison star light curves and the mean-
subtracted times (Vissapragada et al. 2020; Greklek-McKeon
et al. 2022). We also tried including combinations of additional
decorrelation vectors into the systematics model, including the
point-spread function (PSF) centroid offset, the background
level of the image, and the airmass. We fit the light curve with
all subsets of these three vectors and chose the systematics
model that minimized the Bayesian information criterion
(BIC). For the first night, the BIC was minimized when
including only the background level, whereas on the second
night the BIC was minimized when using only the airmass. The
light curves are shown in Figure 2, and the transit times are
reported in Table 1.
2.3. TESS
TESS obtained photometry for Kepler-1658 (TOI-4480.01)
in sectors 41, 54, and 55, all at a 2 minute cadence. We fit the
TESS photometry sector by sector using the Chontos et al.
(2019) priors for all values except the midsector transit time
and the limb darkening coefficients. To handle the stellar
variability in the TESS bandpass, we used the same GP
parameters from the Kepler fit. The results are shown in
Figure 2, and the transit times are reported in Table 1. To
ensure our results were robust to choices in modeling
methodology, three of us (F.D., M.G.-M., N.S.) reduced and
fit the TESS data using independent pipelines and obtained
consistent results.
3. Results
3.1. Fitting the Transit Times
The transit times are shown in Figure 3 with the ephemerides
from Chontos et al. (2019) subtracted off. In agreement with
their work, we found no compelling evidence for a changing
orbital period in the Kepler data alone. However, the transits
observed by Palomar/WIRC and TESS arrived early. In light
of these new data, we sought to quantify the evidence for an
evolving orbital period.
We fit the transit times as a function of observing epoch t(N)
using two models (Yee et al. 2020). The first model fit the data
with a constant orbital period:
( ) ( )
= +
t N t NP, 1
0
where t0 was the transit time at the reference epoch from
Chontos et al. (2019). The second model fit the data including a
constant period derivative dP/dN:
( ) ( )
= + +
t N t NP
dP
dN
N
1
2
. 2
0
2
We used the nested sampling tool dynesty (Speagle 2020) to
estimate the posteriors and Bayesian evidences  for these
models. We performed each nested sampling run using single
Table 1
Transit Times for Kepler-1658b
Data Set Transit Time (BJDTDB)
Kepler LC Quarter 0 -
+
2454959.7314 0.0015
0.0014
+
2454982.82835 0.00061
0.00061
Kepler SC Quarter 2 -
+
2455048.26751 0.00022
0.00021
+
2455140.65189 0.00042
0.00040
+
2455233.03736 0.00035
0.00033
+
2455325.42133 0.00036
0.00035
+
2455510.19192 0.00023
0.00023
+
2455602.57708 0.00027
0.00027
+
2455691.11211 0.00031
0.00033
+
2455883.58121 0.00033
0.00032
+
2455975.96583 0.00036
0.00034
+
2456064.50087 0.00036
0.00036
+
2456256.97026 0.00035
0.00037
+
2456349.35438 0.00039
0.00038
+
2456410.94385 0.00064
0.00065
Palomar/WIRC Visit 1 -
+
2459097.8002 0.0015
0.0015
TESS Sector 41 -
+
2459436.5407 0.0023
0.0023
Palomar/WIRC Visit 2 -
+
2459790.6819 0.0013
0.0015
TESS Sector 54 -
+
2459786.8359 0.0030
0.0028
TESS Sector 55 -
+
2459813.7791 0.0027
0.0029
Note. For the Kepler data sets, LC and SC refer to long cadence (30 minute
exposures) and short cadence (1 minute exposures), respectively.
2
The Astrophysical Journal Letters, 941:L31 (8pp), 2022 December 20 Vissapragada et al.

ellipsoid bounds, 1000 live points, and the random walk
sampling method, terminating each run when the estimated log-
evidence remaining was less than 0.01. The priors, posteriors,
and evidences are given in Table 2. We then computed the
Bayes factor  
= - =
B
ln ln ln 17.5
2 1 for this model
comparison, representing decisive evidence (Trotta 2008) for
the period derivative model over the constant period model. We
conclude that the orbital period of the planet appears to be
decreasing at a rate of -
+
131 22
20
ms yr−1
.
3.2. Considering Alternate Explanations
There are a number of effects that can cause apparent
decreases in the planetary orbital period on decade-long
timescales (e.g., Patra et al. 2017; Bouma et al. 2020; Yee
et al. 2020; Maciejewski et al. 2021; Ivshina & Winn 2022).
Only when these effects are ruled out can we definitively
attribute our observations to orbital decay.
3.2.1. Line-of-sight Acceleration
We first consider line-of-sight acceleration effects: perhaps
the transit times are arriving earlier than expected because the
system is accelerating toward us along our line of sight. If it did
Figure 1. Transit light curves from Kepler. Data are shown binned to 10 minute cadence with the best-fit models given in red.
3

cause the observed period derivative for Kepler-1658b, such an
acceleration would manifest as a linear trend in the RV data for
this planet, with magnitude  
= = - -
+
v cP P 0.324
r 0.049
0.054
m s−1
d−1
. We searched for this acceleration in the RV data from
Chontos et al. (2019). We refit the RVs in exoplanet
accounting for an acceleration term, but we found it to be
consistent with zero:  = + -
+
v 0.047
r 0.067
0.069
m s−1
d−1
. At a
confidence of 4.3σ, we conclude that line-of-sight acceleration
cannot explain the early transit times observed by Palomar/
WIRC and TESS.
3.2.2. Apsidal Precession
Next, we consider apsidal precession of an eccentric orbit,
which can mimic decay due to tides if the full precession cycle
is not captured (e.g., Patra et al. 2017; Yee et al. 2020). Kepler-
1658b’s orbit is slightly eccentric, as its secondary eclipse
arrives about half an hour early relative to an orbital phase of
0.5 in the Kepler data (Chontos et al. 2019), so we must
consider this scenario carefully. We fit the data with a constant
precession rate using the model from Giménez & Bastero
(1995), used previously by Patra et al. (2017) and Yee et al.
(2020):
⎛
⎝
⎞
⎠
( ) ( )
( )
( )
p
w
w w
w
p
w
= + -
= +
= -
t N t NP
eP
N
N
d
dN
N
P P
d
dN
cos ,
1 2 , 3
0 s
a
0
s a
where w
d dN is the precession rate and Ps and Pa are the
sidereal and anomalistic periods, respectively. The priors,
posteriors, and evidence for this model are given in Table 2.
We find that precession is capable of fitting the data just as well
as the period decay model (Figure 3), with relatively
insignificant evidence =
B
ln 2.9 in favor of the decay model.
The required precession rate w » ´ -
d dN 7 10 4 rad orbit−1
is
about 4° yr−1
.
However, this rate is severely problematic from a theoretical
standpoint. If the precession is due to the planetary tidal bulge,
the rate of precession constrains the planet’s Love number k2p
(Ragozzine & Wolf 2009; Patra et al. 2017):

⎜ ⎟
⎛
⎝
⎞
⎠
⎛
⎝
⎞
⎠
( ) ( )
w
p
=
» ´
-
+ - -
d
dN
k
M
M
R
a
k
15
8.9 10 rad orbit . 4
2p
p
p
5
2.1
2.6 7 1
2p
The Love number is related to internal structure and ranges
from 0 and 1.5 (e.g., Russell 1928; Sterne 1939), but matching
the required precession rate requires an unphysical k2p ∼ 103
for the planet. The precession rate from the planetary tidal
bulge is not physically permitted to exceed values of order
∼10−6
rad orbit−1
.
For hot Jupiters orbiting evolved stars, the stellar tidal bulge
can be more important (Ragozzine & Wolf 2009):




⎜ ⎟
⎛
⎝
⎞
⎠
⎛
⎝
⎞
⎠
( ) ( )
w
p
=
» ´
-
+ - -
d
dN
k
M
M
R
a
k
15
1.70 10 rad orbit . 5
2
p
5
0.35
0.45 4 1
2
Figure 2. Transit light curves from Palomar/WIRC and TESS. Data are shown
binned to 10 minute cadence with the best-fit models given in red.
4

Though precession from the stellar bulge is much faster, an
unphysical k2å ≈ 4 is still required. Precession induced by the
rotational flattening of the star and planet are even smaller
contributions than the tidal bulge terms, and the precession rate
from general relatively is 2 orders of magnitude too small as
well (Ragozzine & Wolf 2009).
Finally, we consider the potential impact of an unseen outer
body in the system. Secular perturbations from the outer body
with mass Mo, semimajor axis ao and eccentricity eo would
drive precession of the inner planet; in the limit of an apsidally
antialigned outer body with a large eccentricity, the precession
rate can be written approximately as (Mardling 2007; Batygin
et al. 2009)

⎜ ⎟
⎜ ⎟
⎜ ⎟
⎛
⎝
⎞
⎠
⎛
⎝
⎞
⎠
⎛
⎝
⎞
⎠
⎛
⎝
⎞
⎠
( )
( )
( )
( )
w
p
=
-
= ´
´
-
-
+ - -
-
d
dN
M
M
a
a
e
e e
M a
e
e
15
8 1
5.67 10 rad orbit
10M 1 au
1
.
6
o
o
4
0
o
2 5 2
0.36
0.38 6 1 o
J
o
4
o
o
2 5 2
To match the necessary precession rate, an outer body with
10MJ at 1 au would need an eccentricity of e ≈ 0.9. A body
with this mass, separation, and eccentricity would have been
readily observed in the RVs, with semiamplitude (540 m s−1
)
i
sin , but the data do not indicate its presence. Unless the
inclination of the outer body is very close to i = 0° (requiring
some fine-tuning), this mechanism also seems unlikely.
We conclude that, while apsidal precession model can match
the data, it requires an implausibly large precession rate and can
thus be ruled out on physical grounds. Still, it would be helpful
to strengthen this conclusion further with observations. For
WASP-12b, the decisive evidence against apsidal precession
came from the timing of secondary eclipses, which should
arrive late for a precessing orbit (Patra et al. 2017; Yee et al.
2020). However, because the eclipse is quite shallow for
Kepler-1658b (62 ppm in the Kepler bandpass, and ostensibly
200–300 ppm in the near-infrared), it is difficult to make the
same measurement from the ground or with TESS. Now that
we are a decade removed from the Kepler era, a secondary
eclipse observation with the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) or
JWST would be helpful for testing the precession model more
definitively.
4. Discussion
4.1. Tidal Decay
The best explanation for the early transit times observed by
Palomar/WIRC and TESS is tidal decay of Kepler-1658b’s
orbit. Given our observed 
P, we can calculate the rate at which
orbital energy is being lost (e.g., Millholland & Laughlin 2018):


( )
( )
p
= = - ´
-
-
+ -
dE
dt
GM M
a P
6
1.08 10 erg s .
7
p
3 2
5 2
0.21
0.20 31 1
To estimate the implied tidal quality factors, we assume the
constant time lag model of Leconte et al. (2010) with zero
stellar and planetary obliquity (though both could feasibly
increase the dissipation if maintained over long timescales;
Leconte et al. 2010; Millholland & Laughlin 2018; Su &
Lai 2022). As the eccentricity is small, it is acceptable to
truncate the model at second order in e (Equation (22) in
Leconte et al. 2010)). Then, for inspiral dominated by
Figure 3. Transit timing data for Kepler-1658b relative to the ephemerides from Chontos et al. (2019). The Kepler data (blue points) are consistent with the original
ephemerides, but the Palomar/WIRC (red points) and TESS (orange points) data are not. The model including a decaying orbital period (orange curve) fits the new
data better than the best-fit linear ephemerides (blue curve). While models allowing for an arbitrary precession rate (dashed green curve) match the data as well as the
period decay model, the maximum physically allowed precession rate from Equation (5) (dotted green curve) cannot improve the fit over the nominal model.
5

dissipation in the star, the implied stellar tidal quality factor is



 
⎜ ⎟
⎛
⎝
⎞
⎠
⎛
⎝
⎞
⎠
⎛
⎝
⎞
⎠
( )
p w
¢ = -
= ´
-
+
Q
M
M
R
a P n
27
1
2.50 10 . 8
p
5
0.62
0.85 4
Dynamical tides are required to make the star so dissipative.
For WASP-12 (with 
¢ ~
Q 10 ;
5 Yee et al. 2020; Turner et al.
2021; Wong et al. 2022), it has been suggested that g modes
deposit their energy efficiently via wave-breaking in the
radiative core (Weinberg et al. 2017; Bailey & Goodman 2019;
Barker 2020). This explanation is inadequate for Kepler-1658,
for which the Barker (2020) models predict 
¢ ~
Q 108 with this
mechanism. Dissipation of inertial waves in the convective
zone (Ogilvie & Lin 2007) are more effective for this rapidly
rotating star. For their model closest to Kepler-1658, Barker
(2020) find that inertial wave dissipation should result in

¢ ~
Q 104, in good agreement with our observations. If stellar
dissipation drives the inspiral of Kepler-1658b, inertial waves
are likely responsible.
If instead the inspiral is dominated by dissipation in the
planet, then assuming the planet is tidally locked, the implied
planetary tidal quality factor is


⎜ ⎟
⎛
⎝
⎞
⎠
⎛
⎝
⎞
⎠
⎛
⎝
⎞
⎠
( )
p
¢ = -
= -
+
Q
M
M
R
a
e
P
e
3
2
171
13.5
0.06
. 9
p
p
p
5 2
3.5
4.9
2
A similar expression is given by Efroimsky & Makarov (2022),
who found planetary eccentricity tides to be capable of
explaining the orbital decay of WASP-12b. For Kepler-
1658b, we require ¢ ~
Q 10
p if all the energy is dissipated in
the planet. The quality factors for Jupiter and Saturn are much
larger, ¢ ~
Q 10
p
5 (Goldreich & Soter 1966), but dynamical
tides can lead to small effective quality factors via f mode
diffusive growth and/or gravity wave dissipation in the
radiative upper envelope of the planet (Lubow et al. 1997;
Ogilvie & Lin 2004; Wu 2018). The former mechanism cannot
work as it requires a pericenter distance of less than four tidal
radii (about 5Re for this system), but it seems plausible that the
outer part of the planet is radiative and could support the
resonant excitation of g modes.
Given these estimates for the tidal quality factors, the
majority of the energy is probably lost in the star and not the
planet. But even a small amount of planetary dissipation would
have observable consequences for the planetary energy budget
as we describe in the next section. Finally, it is worth noting
that the stellar spin period (5.66 days) and planetary orbital
period (3.85 days) are close to a near-integer ratio, with
ωå/n ≈ 2/3. If this is not coincidental, the near commensur-
ability may encode the system’s history of tidal angular
momentum exchange.
4.2. Tidal Superheating
A secondary eclipse has been detected for Kepler-1658b in
the optical, with depth 62 ± 4 ppm (Chontos et al. 2019). If this
eclipse is due solely to reflected light, the geometric albedo
would be Ag = 0.72 ± 0.09—by far the largest ever measured
for a hot Jupiter. This is comparable to the geometric albedos of
icy satellites in the solar system (Madden & Kaltenegger 2018)
and is unexpected for hot Jupiters (e.g., Adams et al. 2022). We
find it more likely that the planet is overluminous in the optical
due to its own thermal emission, but the maximum dayside
temperature of this planet is Tmaximum = 2796 ± 73 K (Cowan
& Agol 2011). At this blackbody temperature, the thermal
contribution in the Kepler bandpass is negligible at 15 ppm;
the dayside must be Tobserved ≈ 3450 K to match the eclipse
depth via thermal emission. The dayside temperature of the
planet cannot be due to stellar irradiation alone.
The extra energy required to superheat the planet beyond its
maximum dayside temperature could be provided by dissipa-
tion in the planet. This requires the luminosity from eccentricity
tides to be a substantial fraction of the incident stellar
irradiation (e.g., Bodenheimer et al. 2001; Jackson et al.
2008). To superheat the dayside of the planet, an additional
Table 2
Model Selection for the Timing Data
Model Parameter Unit Prior Posterior
No Decay t0 BJDTDB ( )
- +
t t
1, 1
c c -
+
2455005.92478 0.00014
0.00013

( )
log = 84.3 P days ( )
- +
P P
0.001, 0.001
c c -
+
3.84936720 0.00000066
0.00000060
Decay t0 BJDTDB ( )
- +
t t
1, 1
c c -
+
2455005.92415 0.00016
0.00017

( )
log = 101.8 P days ( )
- +
P P
0.001, 0.001
c c -
+
3.8493733 0.0000011
0.0000012
( )
-dP dN
log10 log10(days orbit−1
) ( )
- -
10, 6 - -
+
7.796 0.079
0.061
Precession t0 BJDTDB ( )
- +
t t
1, 1
c c -
+
2455005.8771 0.0061
0.0086

( ) =
log 98.9 Ps days ( )
- +
P P
0.001, 0.001
c c -
+
3.8493936 0.0000072
0.0000085
w
e cos 0  (-0.00840, 0.00080) - -
+
0.00836 0.00076
0.00076
w
e sin 0  (0.062, 0.019) -
+
0.059 0.022
0.021
( )
w
d dN
log10 log10(rad orbit−1
) ( )
-8, 2 - -
+
3.159 0.071
0.085
Note. ( )
a b
, indicates a uniform prior with lower bound a and upper bound b. ( )
a b
, indicates a normal prior with mean a and standard deviation b. Pc and tc are
shorthand for the best-fit ephemerides from Chontos et al. (2019).
6

luminosity is required:
( )
( )
s p
D = - » ´ -
L R T T 8 10 erg s .
10
SB p
2
observed
4
maximum
4 29 1
This is 1 order of magnitude smaller that the total rate at which
orbital energy is being dissipated (Equation (7)); it is plausible
that 10% of the energy from the shrinking orbit is being
dissipated in the planet. Planetary dissipation is especially
interesting considering that many gas giants orbiting evolved
stars appear to be (re)inflated, which requires the deposition of
additional energy beyond the incident stellar radiation
(Grunblatt et al. 2016, 2017; Lopez & Fortney 2016). If a
similar mechanism operates for these systems, tidal heating
could be a natural explanation for the inflation of planets
orbiting evolved stars.
5. Conclusion
Using data from Kepler, Palomar/WIRC, and TESS, we
showed that Kepler-1658b’s orbit appears to be shrinking at a
rate of  = -
+
P 131 22
20
ms yr−1
, corresponding to an inspiral
timescale of »
P P 2.5 Myr. We ruled out line-of-sight-
acceleration effects using RVs, and found that apsidal
precession could not explain the data either, as the required
precession rates were unphysical. Dissipation in the star is the
most likely culprit: our inspiral rate corresponds to a modified
stellar tidal quality factor  = ´
-
+
Q 2.50 10
0.62
0.85 4, which agrees
well with models of dynamical tides invoking inertial wave
dissipation (Barker 2020). Planetary dissipation probably
cannot explain the entire inspiral rate, but we found it plausible
that some (10%) of the energy from the shrinking orbit is
being dissipated in Kepler-1658b itself, which would explain
its apparently superheated dayside.
We encourage continued transit observations of this system,
as they will help improve the constraint on 
P. Additionally, a
secondary eclipse observation of this system at thermal
wavelengths would simultaneously clarify the dayside temper-
ature of the planet and definitively test the orbital precession
hypothesis. It would also be helpful to constrain the stellar
obliquity via the Rossiter–McLaughlin effect or Doppler
Tomography for this rapidly rotating star (  =
v i
sin 34
km s−1
). Our tidal calculations neglected the role of both
planetary and stellar obliquity, but these could help drive the
orbital decay (Leconte et al. 2010; Millholland &
Laughlin 2018).
Finally, many new planets orbiting evolved stars are being
discovered with TESS (Grunblatt et al. 2022a, 2022b; Saunders
et al. 2022). If the tidal quality factor obtained here is
applicable to other evolved planet-hosting stars, then most of
their planets are nearing the ends of their lives (Schlaufman &
Winn 2013; Hamer & Schlaufman 2019), and we should begin
to see hints of orbital decay for these planets within the next
decade. The growing population of planets orbiting evolved
stars is an exciting new laboratory for many of the ideas we
have presented here.
We thank the Palomar Observatory telescope operators and
support astronomers for their support of this work. We
additionally thank Adrian Barker, Konstantin Batygin, Dave
Charbonneau, Jim Fuller, Mercedes López-Morales, Morgan
MacLeod, and Sam Yee for insightful comments and
discussions.
This paper is based on data collected by the TESS mission.
Funding for the TESS mission is provided by NASA’s Science
Mission Directorate. We acknowledge the use of public TESS
data from pipelines at the TESS Science Office and at the TESS
Science Processing Operations Center. This research has made
use of the Exoplanet Follow-up Observation Program website,
which is operated by the California Institute of Technology,
under contract with the National Aeronautics and Space
Administration under the Exoplanet Exploration Program. D.
H. acknowledges support from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation
and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration
(80NSSC19K0597, 80NSSC21K0652).
Facilities: ADS, NASA Exoplanet Archive, Kepler, Hale
200-inch, TESS.
Software: exoplanet (Foreman-Mackey et al. 2021), light-
kurve (Lightkurve Collaboration et al. 2018), pymc3 (Salva-
tier et al. 2016), celerite2 (Foreman-Mackey et al. 2017;
Foreman-Mackey 2018), arviz (Kumar et al. 2019), astropy
(Astropy Collaboration et al. 2013, 2018), dynesty
(Speagle 2020).
ORCID iDs
Shreyas Vissapragada https:/
/orcid.org/0000-0003-
2527-1475
Ashley Chontos https:/
/orcid.org/0000-0003-1125-2564
Michael Greklek-McKeon https:/
/orcid.org/0000-0002-
0371-1647
Heather A. Knutson https:/
/orcid.org/0000-0002-5375-4725
Fei Dai https:/
/orcid.org/0000-0002-8958-0683
Jorge Pérez González https:/
/orcid.org/0000-0001-
7144-589X
Sam Grunblatt https:/
/orcid.org/0000-0003-4976-9980
Daniel Huber https:/
/orcid.org/0000-0001-8832-4488
Nicholas Saunders https:/
/orcid.org/0000-0003-2657-3889
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